California Assembly Seat In District 4 Up For Vote

   SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A state Assembly seat is up for grabs in a heavily Republican Northern California district.

   Republican Beth Gaines and Democrat Dennis Campanale are vying Tuesday to fill a seat vacated by Gaines' husband, Ted, who won a seat in the state Senate in January.

   Beth Gaines is favored in the 4th Assembly District, which stretches from north of Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. Republicans account for 45 percent of the district's voters, compared to 31 percent for Democrats and 20 percent who decline to state a party preference.

   The election could have set up the first runoff between two candidates of the same party under California's new open-primary law, but seven Republican candidates split the vote in the primary. Campanale, a retired firefighter, was the lone Democrat.

   (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)